(The
"Historical Evolution" of the Hebrew God, variously called Yahweh, Yaw, Yah,
Yahu, El or Elohim)

To be
brief and blunt, Yahweh is merely an amalgamation of various and multiple earlier gods and
goddesses.The Proto-Hebrews having
imbued their God with the functions, epithets, symbols and achievements of many other
earlier and contemporary gods and goddesses.

The evolution of God,
from a multitude of various earlier deities to the currently accepted and locally popular
version of a single omnipotent deity, is well documented.

It
is a scholastically well known but, an under appreciated fact, that many portions of the
Old Testament are dedicated to establishing Yahwehs
superiority over the other Gods.

Contrary to popular
belief the Hebrews did not originally have a monotheistic religion. Theirs were the gods
and goddesses of the land from which they were native; the hierarchy of gods and goddesses
who included Baal, the god of storms, who made the land fertile, and Lotan, the
seven-headed dragon, known to Old Testament readers as Leviathan. Ashera, identical to the
Egyptian Isis, There is Yam Nahar, the god of the seas and rivers, and other pantheons and
hierarchies of gods and goddesses. A little known fact is that the Hebrews also had twelve
main deities and a multitude of minor ones.

It is
startling and profoundly sobering when the words of the world's oldest surviving
literatures  of India and Sumeria, correspond so closely to current
Judeo-Christian-Islamic scriptures that an actual historical chain of descent can be
followed.

The
Bibles repeated uses of Pagan mythologies confirm for us that the
Semites believed that other Gods existed.They
simply used the myths of other peoples to argue the superiority of Yahweh.

Strict
monotheists would have felt no need to support a monotheistic viewpoint from pagan
mythology.

Comparisons
between battle myths from the ancient Near Easternand biblical narratives have
convinced most scholarsthat the Hebrew accounts of Yahwehs
battles with various monsters and other entities is additional evidence that Hebrew
theology is borrowed from surrounding nations.

In every
case where these references are used it is to affirm the triumph of Yahweh over the other
Gods, the establishment of his rule on earth and his superiority over the
other gods.

These
features can be found in Indian, Sumerian, Akkadian (later Babylonian and Assyrian) and
even many Mesoamerican texts.

The
accumulation of these legends and stories and their eventual incorporation into a single
coherent saga with a definite theological outlook was a product of the astonishingly
creative period of literature in the kingdom of Judah in the 7th
through 6th century BCE.

The
Bible's owes a great indebtedness to the motifs found in the literature of surrounding
contemporary and ancient countries.

The
literature created by the Sumerians left a deep impression on the Proto-Semites who in
turn heavily influenced the Hebrews.One of
the most thrilling aspects of reconstructing and translating Sumerian cuneiform script
consists in tracing parallels and resemblances between Sumerian and Biblical literary
motifs.

Since the
Sumerians preceded and ruled the same lands prior to the rise of the Semitic peoples,
there is no doubt that the Sumerians had directly and deeply influenced the
Proto-Semites, including Abraham and especially the
Canaanites and their neighbors, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites, Hurrians, Arameans
and Midianites amongst others.

These
influences are easily traceable in matters of law, religion and philosophy as well as
myths, legends and stories.

This
information is not surprising; most scholars have long recognized that along with many other
tribal chieftains of the period, Abraham led members of his tribe from the Sumerian city
of Ur, west towards the Mediterranean, to the "promised land" of Canaan.
With these Proto-Semitics came their Gods and Goddesses.

Thanks to
the re-discovery in modern times, of considerable portions of Sumerian, Egyptian, Hittite
and Hurrian, Ugaritic and many other ancient texts and literature it is now possible to
recognize in the Bible many traces of Near and even Far Eastern mythologies.

These
traces generally appear in three forms:

Direct
Parallels

Allusions

Survivals
(in figurative expressions)

In
all cases they are accommodated to the religion of Israel by boldly transferring to Yahweh
the heroic feats of older/other pagan gods.

For
example, Sumerian literature contains a number of literary forms and themes found much
later in the Bible.

Some of
the more conspicuous themes involve:

The
creation of the universe

The
creation of Man

The
techniques used in creation

Paradise
(Eden or Dilmun)

The
withholding of immortality from man

The
Cain-Abel motif

The
Tower of Babel motif

The earth
and its organization

Divine
retribution and natural catastrophe

The plague

The
Job motif

Death and
the under world

Concerns
with law, ethics and morality

The flood
(the story that has the closest connection with biblical literature.)

Below
are just a few parallels to digest (there are many, many more):

The
Throne of God

Enki/Ea

Sits upon
a throne decorated with pots from which flow two streams of water, indicating he is the
source of the earth's streams of freshwater.

Yahweh

Sits upon
a throne portrayed as being over a stream of freshwater that leaves the temple in
Jerusalem and travels eastward to the Dead Sea, rejuvenating it.

Enki,
the contender...En of cunning, the shrewd one of the land, sage of the gods, gifted in
thinking, the En of Eridu, change the speech of their mouths, he having set up
contention in it, in the human speech that had been one.

Yahweh/El

Confounded
man's single language because of their hubris in building the Tower of Babel.

The
Deluge

Enki/Ea

Warned
Ziusudra (or Utnapishtim) of an impending Flood that would destroy the world and
all of mankind. Telling him to save himself and the seeds of all living things by building
a boat.

Yahweh/El

Warned Noah of an impending Flood that would destroy the world and all
of mankind. Telling him to save himself and all the animals by building a boat.

(Later
generations embellished this Sumerian myth into a world-encompassing flood.Archaeologists later found flood deposits at
Utnapishtim's city of Shurrupak in Lower Mesopotamian, the Flood was
determined to have been a flooding of the Euphrates river in the 4th-3rd
millenniums BCE, based on the microscopic analysis of the flood sediments.)

Almost
every ancient civilization has a story of the great flood and the survivors who were
warned by a God.

The biblical version of the
"Great Floods" happy ending is chock full of biblical contradictions. It
begins by telling of man's abominations including the corruption of the purity of the
"Sons of God".A decision is
reached to have all flesh perish.

The same Deity rushes
Noah in 7 days to build an Ark to save the seed of mankind and all living things. Why? Was
the Deity's purpose in this to defeat his own plan? When the flood is over and the Ark
lands the deity who is enticed by the smell of roasting meat, forgets his original
determination to end all mankind, and even makes a covenant with Noah to never do so
again.

The nagging contradictions
can easily be placed to rest if one considers the fact that the bibles version is an
edited version of the original Sumerian account.As
in many other instances, the edited "monotheistic" Bible has compressed into one
deity the roles played by one or more other gods who did not always act in accord.

From the Sumerian version,
Enki who disagreed with his brother Enlils command to destroy all humans found a way
to warn Utnapistim/Ziusudra.

'Man
of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-tutu: Tear down thy house, build a ship! Give up possessions,
seek thou life! Foreswear belongings, keep soul alive! Aboard ship take thou the seed
of all living things; That ship thou shalt build - Her dimensions shall be to
measure

From the Bible, God
determined to end all mankind then gives a reprieve and warns Noah.

Genesis
6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch
it within and without with pitch.

Genesis
6:15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall
be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty
cubits.

After the flood,
Utnapishtim/Ziusudra built an altar and offered a sacrifice.

From the Enuma Elish;

'the
gods smelled the savor, the gods smelled the sweet savor the gods crowded like flies about
a sacrificer'

From the Bible;

Genesis
8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of
every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Genesis
8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not
again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil
from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

At first when Enlil
discovered Enki's ploy of saving the Adamu he was furious.He soon relented after realizing that all livestock and produce had been destroyed
in the flood and that Enki's forethought had also prevented a disaster for the Anunnaki.Enlil was very forgiving after hunger set in and
he partook of the burnt sacrifices offered by Utnapishtim/Zuisudra/Noah.

A pledge was then made to the
Adamu by the Elohim as also by Yahweh to Noah, that never again would the Elohim
order their destruction. It is a promise made to man that has been kept ever since (so
far).

By Sumerian
and biblical reckoning this flood occurred at approximately 11,000 BC. This is
coincidental to the end of the last Ice Age and the time frame for the Earth Crust
Displacement theory, and the emerging theory of the Vela Intruder and the
approximate time frame when geologists believe that water erosion on the Sphinx Occurred.

The Name of God

Moses then said to God, `Look,
if I go to the Israelites and say to them, The god of your ancestors has sent me to
you, and they say to me, What is his name? what am I to tell them?

God
said to Moses, `I am who I am. Exodus 3:13-14

As we have learned, Enki (`Lord of the Earth) was called Ea in Akkadian (East
Semitic)  that is to say in the Babylonian tradition. Scholars have determined that
Ea was vocalized as Eya. So, when Moses stood before the burning bush and
asked the name of the god of the mountain, did God really reply `I am
who I am (Heb. Eyah asher eyah)? This puzzling phrase has long perplexed
many theologians here is our simple explanation.

The voice of God simply replied `Eyah asher Eyah - `I am
(the one) who is called Eyah  the name of Ea in its West
Semitic (Hebrew) form.

Some Scholars
have simply failed to recognize (most often those with strong theological ties)
that this is another of those characteristic puns in which the Old Testament abounds. `I
am (Eyah) he who is called (asher) Ea (Eyah) is a classic biblical play on
words.

It also
explains Gods apparently nonsensical instruction:

`This
is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you.

It
doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that the above statement makes no
sense.The words properly translated are `Eyah
has sent me to you.

Cross-pollination
of ideas

Ideas
do not necessarily die when the civilization that nurtured them expires.Eridu declined, and only the Royalty, the Priests
and an educated literate elite maintained the Sumerian language.

The
great empires of Akkad, Assyria, and even Babylon were brought down as all great empires
eventually are, including their predecessor, the Sumerians.Assyria in the late seventh century BCE, Babylon less than a century later.The Persians, Macedonians, Seleucids, Arsacids,
Sassanians, Ummayyad and Abbasid caliphs and later dynasties all exercised lordship in
Mesopotamia at one time or another.

Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam were deeply rooted in the Near East, and as often as not shared
beliefs and legends with their predecessors.

Enki/Ea
survived, in new guises, under different names.Although
Enki and his city-state have all but disappeared, literary traditions and religious
syncretism keep something of them alive.

Two of the
main traditions that formed the basis of Western civilization - Greek and Biblical
- obviously know the stories of Enki/Ea, in barely veiled form.For various reasons, orthodox and official
streams of those traditions ignored or denounced outside influences.

We
are very much the inheritors of civilization in its earliest, Sumerian, forms.

Evidence has it
that the Yahweh movement originated with the court of King Solomon's son
Rehoboam about 960 BCE, at that time many documents were written to strongly favor the
Davidic line of succession in a bid to unite the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

The Yahweh sect
was concentrated in the south in Judah and is associated with temple ritual among the Jews
and the El sect was in the north among the Israelites - just as
Chemosh was the patron god of the Moabites, Milcom of the Ammonites, Hadad of the
Arameans, Melkart of the Tyrians.

Though initially of the
same clan and stock the Judeans felt they had a claim to rule over all Hebrews and the
Israelites did not feel the same.They each
developed their own countries with their own kings and both also had their own biblical
versions.During the 7th and 6th
centuries BCE these separate but similar Bibles
were merged in an effort to once again unite the tribes of Israel under one King and one
Banner.

The
efforts of the Hebrews in the 7th and 6th centuries BCE were not so
much the creation of new gods and new concepts from whole cloth, but rather the taking of
older concepts and adding a "New Twist."Yahweh-El
is the result of the new twists derived from a re-working and transformation of older
concepts by the Hebrews, who followed in the footsteps of their Mesopotamian
predecessors.

Yahweh-El
is simply a re-working and transformation of the Sumerian god of Wisdom and Knowledge,
Enki, also called Ea or Ia, which later became - Iah/Yah/Yaw.This transformation may have also come to the
Hebrews from other places but the fact remains that even those others we can trace that
contributed to the Supremacy of Yahweh-El simply re-interpret and spun their own twists on
the Sumerian epics.

The
Ugaritic influence

The
Ugaritic myths are dated @1500-1200 BCE when Israel first settled the land with
settlements extending from Galilee to the Negev, as portrayed in the book of Joshua.

We are
informed that an agrarian Israel under the Judges, whose simple rural village life appears
to have worshipped Baal and Yahweh.Some
Israelites bore Baal names.Israel's first
king, Saul, had sons bearing Baal names.Hosea
informs us that at times Yahweh was called Baal.

We suspect
that the animosity between Baal and Yahweh, @ 1200-587 BCE is arising directly from the
1500-1200 BCE Ugaritic myths, and the animosity between Baal (Baal-Hadad) and his brother
Yam or Yaw, to see which would become "lord of the earth."This sibling rivalry is yet another distorted
reflection of the early Sumerian strife between Enlil and Enki.

In the
Ugaritic myths the supreme god is called El or Bull-El.He is portrayed as bearded and gray-haired.He
is the father of the gods and the father of mankind as Yahweh-El is a type of
"father" to man, we see a borrowing of concepts by the Hebrews straight from the
Ugaritic motifs.

God is
alternately called El or Elohim (the latter being a plural meaning Gods and
Goddesses).Bull-El is the father of
Baal (also called Baal-Hadad) and Yam (also called Yaw). Baal is identified with
thunder-clouds which bring rain to nourish the earth.Thunder-clouds are called "Adad's Calves." The thunder is Baal's voice.Baal's brother, who contends with him for
ruler-ship of the earth, is Yam, meaning "Sea," also called Nahar or
"river." He acquires a new name from El, Yaw.

Tiamat the
female personification of the salty ocean in Babylonian myths has been transformed into a
mere body of water, Tehom, in the Ugaritic myths and the Hebrews drew directly from the
Ugaritic imagery in associating Yahweh-El in the opening lines of Genesis with Tehom
(English: "the deep").

Bull-El or
El dwells in the depths of a mountain, at the source of the double deep (Tehom), that is
the source of the fresh and salt water oceans. So she is to a degree associated with the
sea.Enki dwelt in the watery depths of the
Abzu, and was associated as being the source of freshwater streams or rivers.The Ugaritic myths are simply reinterpretations
of the older Mesopotamian myths.

Further
parallels

El being
called "Bull-El" suggests his sons are born as "bull-calves" and
become "bulls" at maturity.

-Thus
Baal-Hadad is shown at times standing on a bull hurling lightning bolts.Thunderclouds being called "Adad's
Calves."

-Yahweh-El
appeared at Mt. Sinai as a Thundercloud.

-A golden
calf is made at Mt. Sinai to represent their God shortly after Yahweh's
appearance as a Thundercloud.

-Jeroboam
honors Yahweh-El with two golden calves set up at Dan and Bethel.

This is
harkens back to the reality that Yahweh-El was portrayed alternately as a
"bull-calf" in his manifestation as a Thundercloud.

The
Bible's writers are either in denial of the true origins of Yahweh-El or have
"covered up" the fact that he is really a merging together of Bull-El,
Baal-Hadad and Yaw/Yam of the Ugaritic Myths.

It is
fairly difficult to say for certain where, when and how the Israelites first came to
identify with the god Yahweh.It may be that,
as Exodus says, he was originally a Midianite god, introduced into the land of Canaan by
immigrants from Egypt; or as some evidence indicates he may have started as a minor member
of the Canaanite pantheon.

Originally
El was the supreme god for the Israelites as he had always been for Canaanites.Even if one discounts the pronouncement of El in
the Baal cycle, 'The name of my son is Yaw' one cannot
ignore a passage in the Bible which shows Yahweh as subordinate to El.Deuteronomy 32:8 tells how when El Elyon, i.e., El
the Most High, parceled out the nations between his sons, Yahweh received Israel as his
portion.

Eventually
Yahweh-El came to absorb the names, epithets, and feats of his rivals and other gods.Yahweh-El is a merging of the sea and river god
Yaw (sea is Yam in Hebrew) and Baal-Hadad (Baal being associated with thunderclouds and
Yahweh-El manifesting himself as a thundercloud at Mt. Sinai), as well as the persona of
El (Bull-El), the father of Baal and Yam, and of mankind (Ugaritic ab-adm). Thus the
Hebrews into Adam, the first man and eponym for mankind later transformed Ugaritic adm
meaning mankind.

The
contention between Yaw and his brother Baal-Hadad is the Ugaritic version of the rivalry
between Enki/Ea and his brother Enlil.The
heavenly father aspect attributed to Bull-El is their version of Anu God of the
Heavens from Sumerian theology.

In the
Ugaritic myths Baal conquers the tannin of the sea, so does Yahweh.

Baal-Hadad
the storm god was the chief god of the Arameans, and it worth noting that Israel claimed
her ancestors were Arameans, and that Yahweh is likened to possessing the epithets and
achievements of Baal-Hadad, he appearing at Mount Sinai in the form of a Storm Cloud.

Baal Hadad
(alternately, Adad) is portrayed as a god who dwells within the darkness of a
thundercloud, whose thunder is his voice, and whose rains, initiate the Flood that
destroys all mankind.

The
Biblical portrayal of Yahweh as a god who dwells within the darkness of the thundercloud
(Deut 4:11; 5:22, 23) is borrowing imagery from Baal-Hadad, who also dwells in a dark thundercloud and whose voice is the thunder.

The
Bible also relates that Yahweh was called Baal by some Israelites

"And
in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call
me, 'My Ba'al.' For I will remove the names of the Ba'als from her mouth, and they shall
be mentioned by name no more." Hosea 2:16

If Yahweh
was originally subordinate to El, it be could that the Israelites at first imagined him as
a god of the same type as Canaanite Baal.

-Yahweh as
did Baal also appeared as a storm-god.

-Yahweh
like Baal first established his kingship over the world by subduing the unruly cosmic
waters, symbolized by a serpent or a dragon.

-There are
psalms that show Yahweh subduing the waters along with the dragons Leviathan and Rahab.

-Like
Baal, Yahweh had been a god who had to fight the waters until they submitted to his will.

-Like
Baal, Yahweh constantly sustained the ordered world.

Yahweh did
not - any more than Baal or Marduk - remain subordinate to the supreme god their
fathers.

The
elevation of Yahweh over his father El or brother Baal is a well documented
and common occurrence by the peoples of the time.It
was normal for a people to exalt their patron god to a position of unique dignity, setting
him above all the other gods.This happened
to Yahweh too: he came to be identified with El.A
common epithet of El was Elyon, meaning 'the Most High.'In these psalms Yahweh is likewise called 'the
Most High,' and his dominance is as absolute as El's.

Remember
too that Israel did preserve a notion that their ancestors were Syrians
("Arameans"), the archaeological evidence extrapolated from the Syrian myths
found in Ugarit about the struggle for supremacy to claim the title "Lord of the
Earth", between Yaw/Yam and Baal seems to bear out the northern Israelite
Yaw vs. Baal scenarios and confirms that Aramaean/Syrian religious beliefs are, to a
degree, what is behind Yahwehism.

Babylonian
Influence

From The
Gilgamesh Epic:

"There
rises from the foundation of the heavens a black cloud. Adad thunders in the midst of
it."

From
The Bible:

"And you
came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while the mountain burned with fire to
the heart of heaven, wrapped in darkness, cloud and gloom. Deut 4:11

"These
words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire,
the cloud, and the thick darkness with a loud voice...And when you heard the voice out of
the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire...." Deut
5:22,23

Marduk
became the supreme god of the Babylonians.Originally
the supreme god of Lower Mesopotamia was An or Anu (father of Enki/Ea) later, in a
national hymn called the Enuma Elish, Marduk, becomes "supreme" and
honored above all of the other gods.

Marduk is
declared "to be" the other gods, in as much as they became aspects of his
persona, and they are assimilated to him. Like Marduk, Yahweh too came to
assimilate, the Canaanite gods, El and Baal, as well as others.

Marduk,
(Enki/Eas eldest son) after slaying Tiamat, holds his bow up for praise and places
it in the heavens as a "bow star constellation," a type of memorial to
his ending the threat of a flood to destroy the gods who dwelt on the earth.Yahweh-El, like Marduk, places his bow in the
heavens after bringing to an end the Flood, as a rainbow.

When
Marduk was given the rule he so long desired, a change in the mythology of the region took
place - everything was rewritten with Marduk given the credit for all the heroic acts and
attributes of all the other gods and goddesses, even the planet, Nibiru, was
renamed Marduk.

In short
both the creative force of Nibiru which formed the solar system as we know it and the
greatness of the earlier pantheon became notions ascribed to but one of the pantheon to
gods.

This sort
of Nationalism was apparently standard practice for many of the
Semitics in the area at the time, for example Ashur the national god of the Assyrians is
credited by his people with many of the same exact feats and heroic acts as Marduk was to
the Babylonians.As Yahweh-El is later
credited for many of the same feats by his followers.

The
Israelite world-view in the days of the monarchy had much in common with the world-views
of the Canaanites, the Mesopotamians and even the Egyptians.

The
Israelites also thought of themselves as living within a divinely appointed order which
had been established for their benefit and which would basically never change.

In some
cases Yahweh's triumph over the other gods is due to his absorbing these gods, that is
their powers and feats are credited to him and the older gods, are then labeled as "false
gods" of wood, stoneand metal
are discredited.

The
Midianite Influence

The cult
of Ea extended throughout Babylonia and Assyria.We
find temples and shrines erected in his honor, e.g. at Nippur, Girsu, Ur, Babylon, Sippar
and Nineveh, and the numerous epithets given to him, as well as the various forms under
which the god appears, also bear witness to the popularity which he enjoyed from the
earliest to the latest period of Babylonian-Assyrian history.

`Eyah' or simply `Ya' is
the hypocoristic form of the name Yahweh found as an element of so many Old Testament
names.So Enki/Ea, the god who created Man
and then later warned Ziusudra/Utnapishtim of the impending destruction of mankind, is one
and the same as the god of Moses.

This was the great revelation given to the hero of Exodus during his long exile from
Egypt in the wilderness of Sinai.It was only
when Moses came into contact with the Midianite priest, Jethro, that the highly
Egyptian-ized Israelite learned of a much earlier history for his people their origins in
the land of Eden, their descent into Shinar and the name of their primeval God.

The Midianites were also descended from the patriarch, Abraham, through the sons of
his wife, Keturah.They however, had not
suffered oppression in the land of Egypt, having split off from the Abrahamic tribe and
settled in northwestern Arabia [Genesis 25:1-6].They
had not lost their cultural and religious identity through slavery to a civilization with
different beliefs and traditions.

It is likely that the
Midianites would have been culturally closer to their origins than the Israelites.They too had a rich oral tradition stretching back
to ancestral Mesopotamia.Or perhaps they
carried with them original cuneiform tablets relating the different myths and epics of
their ancestors from Sumer.

Moses then said to God, `Look,
if I go to the Israelites and say to them "The god of your ancestors has sent me to
you," and they say to me "What is his name?", what am I to tell them?' God
said to Moses, `I am he who is called Ea'. And he said, `This is what you are to say to
the Israelites, "Ea has sent me to you". You are to tell the Israelites,
"Ea, the god of your ancestors, the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has sent me to
you." This is my name for all time and in this way I am to be invoked for all
generations to come.'Exodus 3:13,14, 15

The implications are clear: the Israelites did not know the name Ea and so it follows
that they had little or no idea of their ancestral heritage.All this had to be taught them by Moses.

This required a book of
`origins' - a book that the Jewish scholars of Alexandria called `Genesis'.

Moses employed those same ancient stories or tablets,held by Jethro, to
construct the story of the epic originsof the Israelite nation.

Moses and Jethro the
Midianite holy mancertainly met up once again at the foot of the sacred mountain
of the Ten Commandments following the Israelite Exodus from Egypt.

Then Jethro, Moses father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into
the wilderness where he encamped at the Mount of God. Exodus 18:5

It is also of interest to note that at this meeting it is Jethro the Midianite priest
and not Moses who makes the sacrifice toYahweh.

Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, then offered a burnt offering and other sacrifices to
God, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came and ate with Moses' father-in-law in the
presence of God. Exodus 18:12

His position as the officiating lead player in the sacrificial rites wouldmake
much more sense if Jethro was, in fact, already apriest of Ya/Ea the long-time
god of the Midianites and only therecently rediscovered ancestral god of the
Israelites.

Also
noteworthy is the fact that Jethro advised Moses on the establishment of judges, their
duties, character and how they should go about their tasks (Exodus 18:16-26).Understandably Moses owed the man a certain degree
of respect by virtue of the fact that he was his father in law, but it seems that during
his stay with the Isreralites, Jethro played the role of advisor as well as religious
superior to Moses.

With our identification
of Yahweh with the Sumerian god Enki and the Akkadian god Ea we have had an opportunity to
compare thecharacter and attributes of the deities to see if they represent the
same basic natural elements. The following is the authoritative view of Yahweh.

While the date and origins of the names are debatable, the character of Yahweh is
certainly clear, although multifaceted in the biblical text.

·Fire is both a sign of Yahweh's
presence and a weapon (Exodus 13:21; 1 Kings 18:38).

·He is a god of the desert (Judges
5:4).

·He has control over the waters of the
earth - the sea (Exodus 14:21; Jonah),

·He has control over the rivers Joshua
3:16-17),

·He has control over the rain (Genesis
2:5; 1 Kings 17).

·He is the giver of life and one who
brings death.

·He is a god of war and of peace.

There are many aspects
here that are characteristic of Enki/Ea whois the life-giving deity of fresh
water, but there are alsoothers which reflect the more violent nature of
his brother Enlil(`Lord of the Air') who was the head of the Mesopotamianpantheon,
also known as Baal the Canaanite storm god and Seth,the Egyptian god of the
desert. The god of Moses thus reflectsan amalgam of deities.

It would appear that
Moses, influenced ashe was by both Egyptian religious beliefs and those of theneighboring Canaanite states, elaborated greatly upon theancestral god of
Midian and Israel.

The
Yahweh of Moses andJoshua was a god of his time - a god of tremendous natural
destructiveforces - a god who was capable of rescuing the children of Israel
from bondage in Egypt and destroying all those who might prevent their march towards the
Promised Land.Beneath the chaotic surface of
the destructive and vengeful Yahweh of Exodus and Conquest beats the benevolent and
life-giving heart of the Sumerian god of wisdom - Enki, lord of the sweet water that was a
key element to survival in the desert.

Egyptian influences

The Egyptian influences on
the Israelites will be forthcoming in a self-contained chapter entitled Moses
soon to come.The reason for this is that it
will be a relatively large body of work that will deal primarily with Moses, the Exodus
and the Egyptian influences on Hebraism.

Worth mentioning here is the
fact that Moses Ten Commandments are undoubtedly
a reflection of similar rules found in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.Being raised as a member of the Egyptian ruling
aristocracy Moses would have undoubtedly had access to this information.

"Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain....Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not
commit adultery...Thou shalt not bear false witness against they neighbor..."Exodus 20: 7-16

'Not have
I despised god...Not have I killed...Not have I fornicated...Not have I despoiled the
thing of the god...not have I defiled the wife of a man...Not have I cursed god...Not have
I borne false witness'.Egyptian Book of
the Dead

Of
noteworthy significance are the direct parallels back to India and Sumer with the
pantheon(s) of Egypt.

The
Egyptians believed in Gods of Heaven and Earth.Great
Gods that were clearly distinguished from the multitudes of lesser deities. Summarizing
the evidence, shows that the Egyptian belief in Gods of Heaven who descended to Earth from
the skies was an extremely ancient tradition.Some
of the epithets of these Great Gods - Greatest God-Bull of Heaven (Anu = Bull-El),
Lord of the Mountains  (El Shaddai God of the Mountain) sound very
familiar.

Like Anu
in Sumer - Ra ("creator") was the head of the Egyptian pantheon and presided
over an Assembly of the Gods that numbered twelve.

Ra like Anu was an unseen celestial god who manifested himself only periodically.

Their
shared manifestation was the Celestial Disc, depicted as a Winged Globe:

-Anus symbol of the Winged Star is a circle in which an eight-pointed star is
enclosed with opened wings spanning from each of the circle's sides.

-Rassymbol - The ATEN was a blank circle with wings
spanning from each side.

-Anu Had
two sons Enki/Ea and Enlil
-Ra had two sons, Osiris and Seth.

The earlier notion that civilization may have begun in Egypt has long been discarded.
There is ample evidence now showing that the Egyptian - organized society and
civilization, which began more than half a millennium after the Sumerian one, drew its
culture, architecture, technology, art of writing, and many other aspects of a high
civilization from India and Sumeria.The
weight of evidence also shows that the gods of Egypt originated in India or Sumeria.

Enki/Ea/Eyah/Ia/Ya/yah/Yaw/Yam/Oannes/Dagon

Enki
(En meaning Lord, Ki meaning Earth) also called Ea
(meaning Lord of the Watery Abyss).Also
known by the Greeks as Oannes.Elder son of
Anu the original Sumerian God of the heavens.

Enki/Ea
was a God of Heaven and Earth, a deity originally of the heavens, who had come down
to Earth.

Ea (the name meant literally "house-water") who was a master engineer,
planned and supervised the construction of canals, the diking of rivers, and the draining
of the marshlands.He loved to go sailing on
these waterways, and especially in the marshlands.The
waters, as his name denoted were indeed his home.He
built his "great house" in the city he had founded at the edge of the
marshlands, a city appropriately named HA.A.KI ("place of the water-fishes"); it
was also known as E.RI.DU ("home of going afar")....

Another epithet name of Ea was Lord of the Salt-waters, the seas and the
oceans.As Lord of the Seas, Ea built ships
that sailed to far lands, and especially to places from which precious metals and
semi-precious stones were brought to Sumeria.This
information provides a plausible explanation of the Mesoamerican legends of the Viracocha (Quetzalcoatl, Kukulkan)

The
earliest Sumerian cylinder seals depict Ea as a deity surrounded by flowing streams that
were sometimes shown to contain fish.The sea
associated Ea with the Moon (indicated by its crescent) an association stemming perhaps
from the fact that the Moon caused the tides of the seas.It was no doubt in reference to such an astral image that Ea was given one of his
many the epithet this one being - NIN.IGI.KU ("lord bright eye").

The
Sumerians present Enki/Ea as Mankind's greatest benefactor and the god who brought about
civilization.Many texts also depicted him as
Mankind's chief defendant at the councils of the gods.

The
Sumerian and Akkadian texts, which (like the Old Testament) adhered to the belief that a
god or the gods created Man through a conscious and deliberate act, It was Enki/Ea who
outlined to the other gods the method and the process by which Man was to be created.

According
to the Sumerians, Man was created by Enki with the help of Ninhursag a half-sister to both
Enki and Enlil, though all three had different mothers.To accomplish this she followed processes and formulas devised by Enki.She was the chief nurse, the one in charge of
medical facilities, it was in that role that the goddess was called Ninti ("lady
life").

Ea
is alive and well today, though many of his feats and epithets have been ascribed or
assimilated into later gods.Many of
Enkis motifs appear in Genesis, ascribed to Yahweh-El.Still later, Christianity ascribed Enkis
motifs to Christ, claiming that the God of the Old Testament was none-other than Christ
himself.Then came Islam, understanding that
the God of Abraham was Allah, and thus to Allah was ascribed Enkis motifs.

Millions
unknowingly honor Enki/Ea in his "new guises" as Yahweh, Christ and
Allah.

Myths in
which Ea figures prominently have been found in Assurbanipals library.Ea was regarded as the protector and teacher of
mankind.He is essentially the god of
civilization, and he is also credited as being the creator of man as well as our
protector, and of the world in general.

Traces of
this view appear in the Marduk epic celebrating the achievements of this god, and the
close connection between the Ea cult at Eridu and that of Marduk also follows from the
consideration that Marduk is the son of Ea, who derived his powers from the voluntary
abdication (according to Babylonian sources) of Enki/Ea in favor of his son.

Accordingly,
the incantations originally composed for the Ea cult were re-edited by the priests of
Babylon and adapted to the worship of Marduk, and, conversely, the hymns to Marduk bear
the traces of the transfer of attributes to Marduk that originally belonged to Ea.

The
Greek Name for Enki/Ea was Oannes

Oannes,
according to Sumerian history, introduced written language in the Mesopotamian Valley over
5,000 years ago. Many assume Oannes was merely a myth or legend of the Sumerians,
others believe that he visited Earth from an extraterrestrial source.

According
to legend, Oannes was a "fish man" who emerged from the sea in a fish skin and
taught the Sumerians "letters, arts and sciences". The art of writing,
cuneiform, was developed during this period and became the basis for the Aramaic language
and later the Arabian alphabet.

The
Babylonian historian Berossus, writing as a Chaldean, and priest of Belus, describes the
legend of Oannes in a strictly historical context.

Berosus
writes,  whose
whole body (according to the account of Apollodorus) was that of a fish, that under the
fish's head he had another head, with feet also below, similar to those of a man,
subjoined to the fish's tail. His voice too, and language, was articulated and human, and
a representation of him is preserved even to this day.
This Being was accustomed to pass the day among men; but took no food at that season; and
he gave them an insight into letters and sciences, and arts of every kind.He taught them to construct cities, to found
temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge.He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth,
and shewed them how to collect the fruits; in short, he instructed them in everything
which could tend to soften manners and humanize their lives.From that time, nothing material has been added by
way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun had set, this Being Oannes,
retired again into the sea, and passed the night in the deep; for he was amphibious.After this there appeared other like Oannes."

Oannes
was called Lord of the Waves, by the Babylonians, and was said to be amphibious, that is
having the torso and head of a man with his bottom half resembling that of a fish,
complete with scales. Some texts suggest he lived at the bottom of the Apsu or Abyss in fresh
water.

It
has also been said that he was the same entity as Enki or Ea.Ea was called the "fish of heaven" and
Oannes, the Greek form of Ea, was half man, half fish and taught mankind writing and math.He is given credit by the Sumerians for giving
civilization to man. The Philistines called him Dagon, a name many Bible readers will
recall.

Dagon is
mentioned in Bible at least 3 books:

·Book of
Judges 16:23

·Book of 1
Samuel 5:2, 5:3, 5:4, 5:5, 5:7

·Book of 1
Chronicles 10:10.

Dagon is
mentioned in the Bible in a derogatory fashion tying in with Philistine battles.Yet another case of Yahweh becoming supreme over
another god  this time unbeknownst to the Israelites -with himself.This would have been easy for the Hebrews of the
time to do as knowledge of who their god was had by this time been obscured in the mists
of time.

Oannes or
Dagon if you prefer ties in with other myths and legends all over the world,
particularly in Africa with the Dogon tribe, and in South America with the Inca.

Viracocha/Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl

Viracocha

The Incas,
who had a great technology (relatively speaking) when the Europeans were still barbaric
nomads, said that their technology was taught to them by Viracocha who was described as a
Caucasian, bearded God.

Viracocha
was the creator of the people, the Sun, Earth and all else.Viracocha was called the supreme founder, and Creator of all.

Legends of
the Aymara Indians say that the Creator God Viracocha rose from Lake Titicaca during the
time of darkness to bring forth light.

Viracocha
was a storm god and a sun god who was represented as wearing the sun for a crown, with
thunderbolts in his hands.

Viracocha
made the earth, the stars, the sky and mankind.Afterward
he instructed these beings of his own creation in language, customs, arts, knowledge,
cleanliness and civilized behavior and finally flew some of them to different continents,
which they were supposed to inhabit thenceforth.At
some later time Viracocha and his assistants traveled to many countries to check how his
instructions were being followed.

Viracocha
eventually left; some legends say across the Ocean to the east, other legends say to the
west some say that he left by walking on the water, others that he left on a raft made
from living and writhing snakes and still others say on a fantastic ship that sinks and
travels under the waves which can only be meant to describe a submarine.He promised someday to return.It was thought that Viracocha would re-appear in
times of trouble.

References are also found of a group of men named the Suncasapa or
Bearded Ones they were the soldiers of Viracocha or the Angelic
Warriors of Viracocha.

Kukulkan

The
legends say that Kukulkan came from heaven to earth.White-skinned and bearded, Kukulkan was also the god of life and divine wisdom.He brought love, penitence, and exemption from the
usual rituals of sacrifice and blood offering.

He was a
mystical being who met with people from distant places, and had the power to heal the sick
and bring the dead back to life. When he departed for the east, traveling the ocean on a
raft of serpents, he promised his followers that he would return.

He used to
say: "ytzeen caan, ytzeen muyal," which in ancient Mayan means: "I
am the dew and substance from heaven."

As
with many world-wide Myths about Gods and Goddesses - Mayan Myths discuss connections with
being from other realms who came to Earth to seed the planet.This theme is particularly apparent in the ancient
Sumerian myths.

Many
people see in the story of the Popol Vuh the story of extraterrestrial Gods who came down
and made man in his own image.

Within
their culture they have legends of visiting Gods from outer space. In the last thousand
years the being known as Kukulkan the Great Feathered Serpent was a God who brought the
teaching of peace to this part of the world and appeared as a white God with a beard. The
drawings of him look almost identical to the drawings of the being known as Ea or Enki in
the ancient Sumerian teachings.

Quetzalcoatl

Quetzalcoatl
was the Lord of Intelligence and the Winds in Aztec mythology.

Quetzalcoatl
originated as a water god. The first myth he appears in, he is called "Precious
Serpent" and was "the spirit of the waters which flowed along the winding
bends of rivers"

Myth
has it that Quetzalcoatl did the following for humanity:

Named all
of the landmarks of the Earth (mountains, seas, etc.)

Discovered
Maize (Corn)

Created
fire

Established
the maguey culture -- octli brewing and ceremonial drunkenness

Established
the priesthood -- gave proper instruction of sacrifice and created the Tonalmatal
(Book of the Destiny Days)

Domesticated
animals.

Quetzalcoatl
and his brother Tezcatlipoca wrap themselves around Tlaltecuhtli and split her in half;
one half creating the Earth, the other the Heavens.

Tezcatlipoca:
Out of all the gods, is the one that Quetzalcoatl is most intimately associated with. The
two gods would forever act out their polarity on the cosmic stage.On the one hand, they work together in creating
the Earth and the Heavens; while on the other hand, they are constantly hostile to each
other.

One
explanation of their enduring conflict is in the nature of their being. As Tezcatlipoca is
unpredictable, which is dangerous considering that he did not always have mankinds
best interests at heart. Quetzalcoatl in comparison is humanity's savior. He is not as
powerful as his brother, but he need not be. His deeds are what matter. They are in the
end more powerful, due to their importance to the people.

The
Quetzalcoatl/Tezcatlipoca
relationship is very similar to the sibling rivalry associated with the gods
Enlil and Enki of the Sumerian pantheon.

In summary
if all of the worlds most powerful leading deities, including Yahweh, are compared
by their symbolism, epithets, attributes, names, works, deeds, legends and myths.The vast majority draw startling parallels
straight back to Sumeria and the God Enki/Ea.